Notation
Note: The tunes below are recorded in what
is called “abc notation.” They
can easily be converted to standard musical notation via highlighting with
your cursor starting at “X:1” through to the end of the abc’s, then
“cutting-and-pasting” the highlighted notation into one of the many abc
conversion programs available, or at concertina.net’s incredibly handy “ABC
Convert-A-Matic” at

**Please note that the abc’s in the Fiddler’s
Companion work fine in most abc conversion programs. For example, I use
abc2win and abcNavigator 2 with no problems whatsoever with direct cut-and-pasting.
However, due to an anomaly of the html, pasting the abc’s into the
concertina.net converter results in double-spacing. For concertina.net’s
conversion program to work you must remove the spaces between all the lines
of abc notation after pasting, so that they are single-spaced, with no
intervening blank lines. This being done, the F/C abc’s will convert to
standard notation nicely. Or, get a copy of abcNavigator 2 – its well worth
it.[AK]

CIARAN'S CEOLTA TIRE. Irish, Polka. The title Seamus Connolly gave to a polka played by Paddy
Neill of Newport, County Tipperary, heard on Ciaran MacMathuna's weekly program
of Irish music on Radio Eireann. Green Linnett GLCD
1087, Seamus Connolly - "Notes From My Mind" (1988).

Paul
Tyler finds this vignette in W.H. Venable’s Footprints of the Pioneers of
the Ohio Valley: A Centennial Sketch (1888):

***The old-time apple-cutting was an occasion of unbounded mirth. . . . After
the apples were cut, and the cider boiled, the floor was cleared for a
"frolic," technically so-called, and merry were the dancers and loud
the
songs with which our fathers and mothers regaled the flying hours. The
fiddler was a man of importance, and when, after midnight, he called the
"Virginia Reel," such shouting, such laughter, such clatter of
hilarious
feet upon the sanded puncheon floor, startled the screech-owl out of doors,
and waked the baby from its sweet slumber in the sugar-trough. . . . The
apple-cutting was fifty years ago . . .

CILLE CHOIRILL (Cairell's Bell). Scottish, Slow Air (3/4 time) and Pipe March
(6/8 time). C Major. Standard. One part. The air was composed by Kenneth
Kennedy, with the pipe march setting by Pipe Major Stewart (Mrs.). According to
Neil (1991), the title is taken from the name of the ancient burial ground in
the Braes of Lochaber, and is named for Saint Cairell. Cairell was originally
an Irish missionary who crossed the Irish sea in small hide‑covered frame
boats, called coracles, to Scotland around 600 A.D., accompanied by some
followers. After proselytising in Scotland for some time he returned to his native
Ireland to live in the monastery at Clonkeen‑Kerrie, where he died.Though "a humble and unostentatious
man, small in stature, with poor health but strong in spirit," Cairell's
ministry in Scotland was successful and there are a number of sites in that
country associated with him, including Glen Urquhart, Appin, Tayniult, and
Ruthven parish in Banffshire, "where both a cairn and a well are named
after him."The graveyard bearing
the Saint's name is the resting place of many generations of Highlanders,
including some of the composer's ancestors who struggled at Culloden and with
Wolfe at Quebec, and the similarly ancient church is thought to have been built
by Cameron of Lochiel sometime in the 1400's to atone for his sins.

CINCINNATI HORNPIPE [2].
American, Hornpipe. G Major (‘A’ part) & C Major (‘B’ part). No relation to
“Cincinnati Hornpipe [1]." From a field recording of Washington
Courthouse, Ohio, fiddler Estil Adams, made by the late Jeff Goehring.

CINDY [1]. AKA and see "Cindy in the Summertime," "Cindy in the Meadows,""Get Along Home (Miss) Cindy,"
"Git Along, Cindy," "J'etais au Bal," "Old Time Cinda," "Run Along Home, Cindy,""Whoop 'Em Up Cindy,"Old‑Time, Song and Breakdown. USA;
Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Mississippi. D Major
(most versions): G Major (John Brown). Standard or ADae tuning. AB (Brody): AABB
(Phillips/1989 {the 'B' part is 'crooked' in Phillip's version}): AA'BB
(Phillips, 1994). A widely known frolic tune, appearing in many folk music
collections and even old elementary school songbooks. The title appears in a
list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by
musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954, and was recorded for
the Library of Congress in 1939 by Mississippi fiddler John Brown. A very
popular Cajun version of the tune, probably borrowed from the American song, is
"J'etais au Bal" (I Went to the Dance Last Night).Verses set to the tune are many, including
several "floaters":

***

Cindy in the summertime, Cindy in the fall,

Can't have Cindy all the time, don't want
Cindy at all.

Chorus

Get along home, get along home,

Get along home, Cindy, fare you well.

***

You ought to see my Cindy, she lives way
down South,

She's so sweet the honey bees all swarm
around her mouth.

***

Wish I had a needle as fine as it could sew,

I'd sew that gal to my coat‑tail, and
down the road I'd go.

***

Went upon the mountain, to give my horn a
blow,

Hollered back to Cindy, oh yander she go.
(Rosenbaum)

***

When I was a little lad, about six inches
high,

I used to court the pretty girls to hear the
old folks cry;

Get a‑long down, down Big Sandy, Get a‑long
down, down Big Sandy,

Get a‑long down, down Big Sandy,
that's the place for you.(Thomas & Leeder)

***

The Big Sandy River, referred to in Thomas & Leeder's
lyric, forms the border between Kentucky and West Virginia and flows into the
Ohio River at Catlettsburg, Ky.It was
a flat‑boat trade route before the advent of the railroads. See also
similar stanzas printed by African-American collector Thomas Talley in Negro Folk Rhymes (1922) under the title
“She Hugged Me and Kissed Me.” A song derived from the well-known “Cindy”, is a
“Cindy” from the singing of Dan Tate (b. 1896), of Fancy Gap, Carroll County,
Va.. It goes:

***

Railroad, a plank
road,

A river and canal;

If it hadn’t have been
for Doctor Grey,

There never would have
been any hell.

***

Cho:

Get along home Cindy,

Get along home I say;

Get along home Cindy
girl,

For I am a-going away.

***

A railroad, a plank
road,

A river and canoe;

If it hadn’t have been
for old John Jones,

They never would
a-killed old Jude.

***

Tate said that Jude was a slave of a Doctor Gray, who abused
her when she became pregnant and would not tell who the father of her child
was.

CINDY LOU. Old‑Time, Fiddle Tune. USA, northeast Alabama. The tune was
listed in Mattie Cole Stanfield's "Sourwood Tonic and Sassafras Tea"
(1963) as played by George Cole of Etowah County, Alabama, at the turn of the
century.

CINQ JUMELLES, LES (The Five Twin Sisters). AKA and see “Dionne Reel.” French-Canadian, Reel. D Major
(Parts A, B, D and E) & G Major (Part C). Standard tuning. AABBCCDDEE or
AABBAABBCCDDEE. All parts are four measures long with the exception of part ‘D’
which is eight measures. Lisa Ornstein says the tune is a mixture of familiar
strains from other tunes with some original material. Star
15891 (78 RPM), Joseph Ovila LaMadeleine (1879-1973. Recorded August, 1934,
some three months after the births of Dionne quintuplets Emilie, Yvonne, Cecil,
Marie, and Annette in Callander, Ontario).

CINQUIEME PARTIE DU
CALEDONIA, LA (the 5th Part of
a Caledonian).
French-Canadian, Reel. A Minor. Standard. AABB. A portion of a set for a
Caledonian Quadrille, from the playing of Jean-Marie Verret of Lac St. Charles,
Quebec, who told Susan Songer, “This tune was played by my ancestors!” Source
for notated version: Learned from the Hillbillies from Mars, who had no name
for it [Songer]. Songer (Portland
Collection), 1997; pg. 50.

CIRCLE, THE. AKA and see "Sam Hyde's Quickstep," "Mrs. Monroe's [1]," "The King." American, Jig. D Major (Phillips):
G Major (Miller). Standard. AABB. Several tunes have been known by this name,
probably because of their association with a circle dance. Tunes alternately
known as "The Circle" have been "Rantin' Roaring Willy" and
"Uncle Steve." Randy Miller (2004) attributes the tune to New England
fiddler John Adams Taggart (1854-1943), from his “Recollection of a Busy Life”
(1938), a typewritten manuscript deposited with the New Hampshire Historical
Society (Concord, N.H.). Taggart, born and raised in Sharon, New Hampshire, and
was a onetime orchestra leader and composer. Taggart wrote in his ms. that the
tunes “were all taught me during my boyhood days in Sharon (N.H.), by the
various fiddlers in that vicinity.” Miller points out that Sharon is in “the
heart of the Monadnock Region of southwestern New Hampshire, where fiddlers and
contra dances abound to this day” (pref. iv) [Miller]. Source for notated
version: New Hampshire Fiddlers' Union [Phillips]. Burchenal, 1918; pg. 2.
Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle
Tunes), vol. 2, 1995; pg. 363. Miller (Fiddler’s
Throne), 2004; No. 19, pg. 24. Front Hall
FHR-204C, New Hampshire Fiddlers Union – “Music of John Taggart” (1992).

CIRCUS [2], THE. AKA and see “Charles Street Walk.” English,
Country Dance Tune (2/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning. AABB. Charles and
Samuel Thompson printed a country dance to this tune called “Charles Street
Walk” in their Twenty Four Country Dances (London, 1772).

***

Philip Astley is credited with creating the first circus in London in
the latter 18th century.

***

Source for notated version: the
music manuscript of Captain George Bush (1753?-1797), a fiddler and officer in
the Continental Army during the American Revolution [Keller]. Keller (Fiddle
Tunes from the American Revolution), 1992; pg. 21.

CIRCUS PIECE. AKA and see "Texas Quickstep
[3]," "Mississippi
Breakdown [2]." Old‑Time, Breakdown. USA, Mississippi. D Major.
ADae tuning. The title derives from the place the source, Mississippi fiddler
Stephen B. Tucker (an eighty year old fiddler recorded by the Library of
Congress in 1939), heard the tune. Tom Rankin (1985) identifies it as a tune
that was occasionally recorded by southern musicians under a variety of titles.
An Alabamba fiddler transplanted to Texas, A.L. Steeley, recorded the tune in
1929 for Brunswick (BR 285) under the title "Texas Quickstep," while
the Leake County Revelers issued it along with their popular "Wednesday Night Waltz" (and
later revamped the coarse phrase as another recording, "Mississippi
Breakdown," in 1931). Henry Reed, of Glen Lyn, Virginia, knew the tune
simply as "a clog."

***

Paul Gifford notes that rural hotels,
resorts, menageries and circuses provided venues for several traditional
musicians. He cites the narrative of Soloman Northrup, a Northern black fiddler
who was engaged to play with a circus in the 1830’s who was kidnapped into
slavery in Virginia. One fiddler's diary he read mentioned being quite
impressed by a fiddler he heard at a circus in Michigan in the 1840’s.

CISTE NO STOR (Treasures or Wealth). AKA - "My Love and Treasure," "(O) Save me from Death," "Hide me from Death." Irish, Air
(3/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning. One part. The Irish collector Edward
Bunting thought this tune to have been "the original of Carolan's 'Fairy Queen' the only difference being
that Carolan added two parts to it, in which it was generally played by
harpers." Source for notated version: according to the index of Bunting's
1840 collection the melody was noted "from Dr. Young of Clonfert at
Castlereagh, County Roscommon, in 1800." O'Sullivan/Bunting, 1983; No. 29,
pgs. 47-48.

CITACO. AKA ‑ "Citigo," “Citico.” AKA and see "Down to the
Wildwood to Shoot the Buffalo." Old‑Time, Breakdown. USA; north
Georgia, Tennessee. GDad tuning. Citaco is an area north and east of the city
of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The melody is known as a north Georgia tune. It was,
for example, in the repertoire of north Georgia fiddler Lowe Stokes (1898-1983,
who played with the Skillet Lickers as well as other bands) who learned it
under the title "Down to the Wildwood to Shoot the Buffalo." However,
when Stokes recorded the tune in 1930 on his Brunswick Records 78 with his band
Lowe Stokes’ Swamp Rooters, it was titled “Citaco.” Some versions sound similar
to versions of "Cotton Eyed Joe,” as, for example, played John Dykes (of
the Dykes Magic City String Band) GDad tuning, and as recorded by Marion Thede
in her Fiddle Book. North Carolina
fiddler Marcus Martin’s version of “Citaco” is similar to the Kentucky tune “Calico.” County 527,
The Swamp Rooters (Lowe Stokes) ‑ "Old Time Fiddle Classics, vol. 2:
Original Recordings 1927‑1934." Document DOCD8045, Lowe Stokes in
Chronological Order, vol. 1: 1927-1930 (1999 reissue; appears as “Citago”).

CITY GUARDS. Related to "Rustic Reel [1],"
"Libby Prison Quickstep,"
"First Western Change,"
and "O Dear Mother My
Toes Are Sore [1]" in the first strain. The City Guards, at least in
Edinburgh, were the precursors to the official police force, established around
1696. They were abolished in that city in November, 1817, after which the
police assumed all their remaining duties. The populace, at least in the latter
years, called them “The Toon Rottens,” according to Henry Cockburn (1779-1854),
writing in his posthumous memoir Memorials
of His Time (1856):

***

The police has made them useless; but I wish they had been perpetuated,
though it

had been only as curiosities. Their number was liable to be increased or
diminished

according to circumstances. At this period they amounted, I conjecture,
to about 200,

regimented like ordinary soldiers. They were all old, hard-featured,
red-nosed veterans;

whose general history was, that after being mauled in the wars, commonly
in a Highland

regiment, they thought themselves fortunate if they got into this
fragment of our old

burgher militia, where the pay was better than nothing, and the
discipline not quite

consistent with whisky, while the service was limited to keeping the
peace within the

city. Naturally disliked by the people they were always asserting their
dignity by testy

impatient anger. This excited the mischief and the hostility of the
boys, by whom their

small remains of temper were intolerably tried; and between the two
there never ceased

to be a cordial and diverting
war. Their uniform was a red coat turned up with blue, a

CITY OF SAVANNAH. American (originally), Irish; Hornpipe. D Major. Standard tuning. AABB.
Composition credited to Frank Livingston in Ryan's
Mammoth Collection. The title may refer to the sail steamer City of Savannah, the flagship of the
Ocean Steamship Company of Savannah, built in 1877. Don Meade says the “City of
Savannah” was the first steamship to cross the Atlantic.For seventy years, from 1872 to 1942, the
company operated vessels that carried passengers and freight between Savannah,
New York and Boston. There were other ‘city’ ships in the 19th
century: the City of New York was built in 1888 for the Inman Line. Sister
ships the City of Paris and the City of Brooklyn plied the waves beginning in
the 1860’s. All were award winning ships that set crossing records for their
era.Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; pg. 105. Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 2; No. 354, pg. 39. Mallinson (Enduring), 1995; No. 73, pg. 30. McNulty
(Dance Music of Ireland), 1965; pg.
23. Ryan’s Mammoth Collection, 1883;
pg. 142. Flying Fish FF 70572, Frank Ferrel – “Yankee
Dreams: Wicked Good Fiddling from New England” (1991). Varrick VR‑038,
Yankee Ingenuity ‑ "Heatin' Up the Hall" (1989).

A, | D<D F>E D2 D<A, | D<D F>A B>AF>d | D<D F>E
D2 D>F|

G>A,F>A, E>A, C<E :|
d>fA>f d/e/f/g/ a>f | d>fA>f d>fA>f |

d>fA>f d/e/f/g/ a>f |
g>Af>A e>Ac>e | dfAf d/e/f/g/ a>f |

dfAf
d>Ad>f | B<gA<f G<eF<d | G>A,F>A, E<A,C<E ||

CLACH NA CUDAIN [2] (The Cross of Inverness). AKA and see "Cross of Inverness." Scottish,
Reel. G Major. Standard tuning. AB (Hunter): AABB (Neil). The 'clach' is the
foundation stone of the town of Inverness, located near the Market Cross, where
all business (and the town gossip) was carried on, according to Captain Simon
Fraser, the likely composer of the tune (in whose 1816 collection it appears).
Neil (1991) relates that this stone was called the 'Stone of Tubs' or 'The
Rocking Stone of Inverness' and that women placed their buckets on it before
setting off for the river. There is a legend that the town will survive as long
as the stone remains intact. Hunter (Fiddle
Music of Scotland), 1988; No. 195. Neil (The Scots Fiddle), 1991; No. 134, pg. 173.

CLACHAN, THE. Scottish, Strathspey. D Major. Standard
tuning. AABB’. A clachan is a small village containing a church. Although the
term can be used generically, there is a small village called Clachan in
Kintyre, Scotland, anciently the sear of Clan Alasdair. Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 4; No. 72, pg. 10.

CLANCY'S. Irish, Reel. C Major. Standard tuning. AABB. The title may refer to
Willie Clancy, the great County Clare piper. McNulty (Dance Music of Ireland), 1965; pg. 6.

CLANCY'S DREAM. Irish, Jig. D Major. Standard
tuning. AABB. A member of the large “Sweet
Biddy Daly” family of 6/8 tunes. The tune was recorded by County Leitrim
flute player John McKenna (1880-1947) in New York for Columbia Records in 1928,
paired with the slip-jig “Leitrim Town.”
Sligo fiddler Michael Coleman (1891-1945) also recorded it, but used the title
“Paddy Clancy’s.” Miller prints the
tune with the parts reversed from the Treoir
version below. Miller (Fiddler’s Throne),
2004; No. 20, pg. 25.

CLANCY’S JIG [2]. AKA and see “Kitty’s Ramble{s},” "Ladies Triumph [3]." Irish, Double
Jig. G Major. Standard tuning. The melody was recorded in New York in 1928 by
accordion player P.J. Conlon, originally from the area around Milltown, County
Galway. Foxglove FG9701GCD, Randal Bays – “Out of the
Woods” (1997).

CLANRANALD [1] (Mac 'Ic Ailein). Scottish, Slow Strathspey. F Major. Standard
tuning. AAB. The tune "is a dirge to one of the MacDonald's of Clanranald,
killed in battle at Sherriffmuir" (Fraser). Fraser (The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the
Isles), 1874; No. 188, pg. 77.

CLÁR BOG DÉIL [1], AN. AKA and see “Caiseal Mhumhan”
(Cashel in Munster),“Cois na Brighde,”
"The Soft Deal Board," “The Bog-deal Board”(?)Irish, Air. Ireland, Munster. F# Minor.
Standard tuning. AB. The air and song have been identified as a love song
coming from Munster (where it is better known as “An Caiseal Mumhan”), though
variants can be found throughout Ireland. The tune, according to Cowdery
(1990), is the same as that of the Connemara version of "Roisin
Dubh," the title coming from a different text (see note for "Roisin Dubh [1]"). The music
appears in Poets and Poetry of Munster
(1849), and Stanford/Petrie gives no less than six settings, according to
Joyce. Paul de Grae explains: “Although the title could be understood as ‘the
soft deal board’, it would be more correct to say "the bog deal
board"—‘bog’ does mean ‘soft’ in Irish, but in this context it refers to
‘bog deal’, that is, deal (pine timber) which has been preserved in a bog.As was formerly the accepted pronunciation
in England too, ‘deal’ is pronounced ‘dale’ in Hiberno-English, and the title
is really half-Irish (an clár) and
half-English (bog deal).”

***

Bog deals were used as fuel, as was
peat. Donal Hickey, writing in his book Stone
Mad for Music (1999) says that before the lamp was perfected people in the
Sliabh Luachra region of the Cork/Kerry border had only the light from the fire
at night. A bog deal splinter was lit to do work around the house or to light
themselves to bed.

CLARK WALTZ.Rounder 0437, H.K. Silvey–
“Traditional Fiddle Music of the Ozarks, vol. 3: Down in the Border Counties.”

CLARKE'S FAVORITE. Irish, Reel. Eleanor Neary of Chicago recorded this tune in the 1930's
and gave it this title. The melody was also in the repertoire of accordion
player Paddy Gavin (Balbriggan, Co. Dublin) who played it in a medley entitled
"John Bowe's" (the name of another great accordion player). Green Linnet SIF‑104, Liz Carroll ‑ "The
Celts Rise Again" (1990). Green Linnet SIF‑1092, "Liz
Carroll" (1988).

CLARK’S FAVORITE [2].American, Jig. G Major. Standard tuning. AABB. Randy Miller (2004)
attributes the tune to New England fiddler John Adams Taggart (1854-1943), from
his “Recollection of a Busy Life” (1938), a typewritten manuscript deposited
with the New Hampshire Historical Society (Concord, N.H.). Taggart, born and
raised in Sharon, New Hampshire, and was a onetime orchestra leader and
composer. Taggart wrote in his ms. that the tunes “were all taught me during my
boyhood days in Sharon (N.H.), by the various fiddlers in that vicinity.”
Miller points out that Sharon is in “the heart of the Monadnock Region of
southwestern New Hampshire, where fiddlers and contra dances abound to this
day” (pref. iv) [Miller]. Source for notated version: New Hampshire Fiddlers'
Union [Phillips]. Miller (Fiddler’s
Throne), 2004; No. 21, pg. 25. Front Hall
FHR-204C, New Hampshire Fiddlers Union – “Music of John Taggart” (1989).

CLAY PIPE. AKA and see "The Monaghan {Jig}."
Irish, Double Jig. E Dorian. Standard tuning. AA’BB’CC’ (Cranford/Fitzgerald):
AABBCCDD (Monaghan Jig). Three turn versions were published in The Harding Collection and O’Neill’s.
According to Paul Cranford (1997), a four-turn setting first appeared in 1809
in Gow’s 5th Collection (with a new variation by Mr. Sharp of Hoddom).
Sligo/New York fiddler Michael Coleman recorded a four-turn version with a
different fourth part in the 1920's. Source for notated version: Winston
Fitzgerald (1914-1987, Cape Breton) [Cranford]. Cranford (Winston Fitzgerald), 1997; No. 195, pg. 76.JEMF-105, Joe Cormier – “New England
Traditional Fiddling” (Appears as first tune of “Clay Pipe Medley”). Rounder Heritage Series 1166-11592-2, Joe Cormier (et al) –
“The Art of Traditonal Fiddle” (2001. Appears as first tune of “Clay Pipe
Medley”).

CLAYMORE, THE. Scottish, Strathspey. G Major. Standard
tuning. One part. Composed by A. Cameron. Hunter (1988) says the strathspey was
named after the steamer Claymore
which sails to the Hebrides from Oban. Hunter (Fiddle Music of Scotland), 1988; No. 72.

CLEAN PEA(SE) STRAW/STRAE.
AKA and see “Old Buttie
Was a Bonnie Lad,” "Pea Straw," "Pease Strae/Straw," "What'll All the Lasses Do"
(Shetland). English, Scottish, Shetland; Hornpipe or Reel. England,
Northumberland. D Mixolydian. Standard tuning. AAB. Glen (1891) finds the tune
earliest in print in Robert Bremner's
1757 collection (pg. 65). Pease strae, or pease straw, consists of dried stems
and leaves.It has many uses in
agricultural areas: it is a fodder for horses, if not sandy, but was also used
as a rustic bedding, as illustrated in this brief excerpt from Sir Water Scots’
novel The Antiquary:

***

Oldbuck thrust something into his hand---Ochiltree
looked at it by the torchlight, and returned it---``Na, na! I never tak
gowd---besides, Monkbarns, ye wad maybe be rueing it the morn.'' Then turning
to the group of fishermen and peasants---``Now, sirs, wha will gie me a supper
and some clean pease-strae?''

***

Indeed, not only
was it bedding for people—in the Elizabethan era to be as ‘snug as pigs in
pease-straw’ was to be very well off! Many other literary references to pease
strae exist. Scots poet Robert Tannahill wrote a song to the tune, called “When
John and I Were Married”, which mentions pease strae in the last line of every
verse:

***

When John and I were married,
Our hau'ding was but sma',
For my minnie, canker't carline,
Wou'd gi'e us nocht ava';
I wair't my fee wi' canny care,
As far as it would gae,
But weel I wat our bridal bed
Was clean pease-strae.

***

It is even
referenced in a relic of the ancient cushion dance that survived into the 20th
century in the children’s rhyme:

CLEAR CAVALIER, THE. English, Air (4/4 and 6/8 time). D Major.
Standard tuning. AABBCC. The tune appears in Charles Morgan's MS (1682), John
Bannister's Division Violin MS, Apollo's Banquet for the Treble Violin,
the ballad opera Love in a Riddle
(1729). Chappell (1859) states it was introduced as "The Card Dance"
in Mrs. Behn's farce TheEmperor of the Moon (1687). The song,
attributed to Samuel Butler, was a Cavalier ballad and was published in several
collections filled with loyal songs to King Charles. Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time), Vol.
2, 1859; pgs. 32‑33.

Fiddler and musiciologist Paul Tyler
has discovered an account by one Joseph Hayes, born in 1786 in
Pennsylvania, who moved from that state down the same Ohio river to settle in
Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Late in his life he dictated memories of frontier
life from circa 1810, including an account of dancing after corn-huskings.
Hayes writes that at these events "in one corner would be seated the fiddler
delving way with fingers, elbow, cat-gut and horse-hair, to the joy of all
around - The pieces of music mostly called for, were 'The gray cat kittened in
Charley's wig,’ 'Captain Johnston', 'Buncomb' &c. the whole ending in a
jigg called 'Clear the kitchen'.” The minstrel-dialect title “Clar de Kitchen” appears in Howe’s
Musician’s Companion, Part 2, published in 1843. Additional verses in Ford
(1940, pg. 407). Ford (Traditional Music
in America), 1940; pg. 105.

CLEE HILL. AKA – “Dennis Crowther’s
No. 1.” English, March (4/4 or 2/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning. One
part. Clee Hill refers to both the height of Titterstone Clee, one of the
highest hills in south Shropshire, or the village of Cleehill, Shropshire,
which lies on the slopes. Titterstone Clee is in the range of hills called
collectively the Clee Hills, and has been heavily quarried over the years.
Writer J.R.R. Tolkien used to visit the area and some believe he modelled “The
Shire” in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings after the area. Dennis
Crowther is a poet, singer, mouth organ player from the area. Part of the
melodic material from “Clee Hill” appears in the tune “Oh, Joe! The boat is going over,”
a melody used by morris/molly dancers from the Clee Hill area. Accordion master
John Kirkpatrick recorded this tune (along with “Dennis Crowther’s No. 2”) at
the Sidmouth Folk Festival, 1999. Source for notated version: Shropshire
harmonica player and entertainer Dennis Crowther [Callaghan]. Callaghan (Hardcore English), 2007; pg. 32.

X:1

T:Clee Hill

M:2/4

L:1/8

R:March

K:C

E2F|G3A|GcBA|G2E2|D3E|F3G|BAGF|EcBA|

E3F|G3A|GcBA|G2E2|D3E|F3G|BAFD|C2C2||

eGeG|e3E/2F/2|GAGc|B2A2|fGfG|f3E/2F/2|GAGB|A2G2|

eGeG|e3E/2F/2|GAGc|B2A2|ABcB/2A/2|Gce2|edAB|c4||

CLEEK HIM INN. Scottish, Reel. F Major. Standard tuning. AAB. Glen (1891) finds the
tune earliest in print in Robert
Bremner's 1757 collection. The title references Cleekhimin (pronounced
Kleek-ay-minn), a junction between Motherwell Cross and Carin Cross in Lanark,
Scotland, located halfway up a steep hill. A tavern was located there, the
Cleekhimin Bar, whose trade was insured by the fact that the hill was so
precipitous that horse drawn carriages would be forced to harness or ‘cleek’ an
extra set of horses in order to power the way to the crest of the hill. The
call to ‘cleek him in,’ referring to the addition of an extra team, became a
place-name. Bremner (Scots Reels),
1757; pg. 66.

CLERGY'S LAMENTATION, THE. Irish, Air. The tune is attributed to blind
Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738), thought Donal O’Sullivan, in his
definitive work on the bard could find no incontrovertible evidence of its
origin. Maggie's Music MM107, "Music in the Great
Hall" (1992).

CLEVELAND'S MARCH (TO THE WHITE HOUSE). AKA – “Cleveland Marching to the
White House.” Old‑Time, March. Grover Cleveland ran for the Presidency in
the 1880’s and was elected twice, in 1885 and 1893. Mike Yates (2002) believes
the tune dates to one of these election campaigns. The tune is fairly well
known in the Blue Ridge mountain area of western Virginia and North Carolina.
It was in the repertoire of fiddler Emmett Lundy (b. 1864),
from Grayson County, Virginia, who was recorded playing the tune in 1941 by
Alan and Elizabeth Lomax for the Library of Congress Archive of Folk Song. A
version called “Piper’s Gap” was played by banjo player Rob Tate (who lived
between Piper’s Gap and Fancy Gap, Carroll County, Virginia) in 1979 for Mike
Yates. Heritage 070, Roscoe Parish (Galax, Va.) ‑
"The Old‑Time Way." Musical
Traditions MTCD321-2, Rob Tate – “Far in the Mountains, vols. 1 & 2” (2002.
Appears as “Piper’s Gap”). Rounder CD 0439/40, Bertie Caudill Dickens (appears
as “Cleveland’s Marching to the White House”). Voyager VRCD-354, Hart & Blech –
“Build Me a Boat” (appears as “Cleveland Marching to the White House”).

CLEVER
COLLEEN, THE. Irish, Reel. A Major. Standard
tuning. AB. Source for notated version: the Rice-Walsh manuscript, a collection
of music from the repertoire of Jeremiah Breen, a blind fiddler from North
Kerry, notated by his student [O’Neill]. O’Niell (Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody), 1922; No. 264.

CLIFFS
OF MOHER, THE (Aillte Motair
Ua Ruadain).
AKA and see “Last of the Lot.” Irish,
Double Jig. A Dorian (most versions): G Major (Harker/Rafferty, O'Neill/1850):
A Major (Levey). Standard tuning. AAB (Carlin, Moylan, O'Neill/1850 &
1001): AABB' (Cranitch, Harker/Rafferty, Mallinson, O'Neill). The Cliffs of
Moher are situated on the Atlantic coast northwest of Lahinch, in County Clare.
They stretch some eight kilometers from Hag's Head to O'Brien's Tower and reach
200 meters in height. They take their name from a ruined promontory
fort, Mothar, which was demolished during the Napoleonic wars to make room for
a signal tower. Although the
tune is noted in G Major in O’Neill’s/1850, it is usually heard played in the A
Dorian mode, and indeed, O’Neill’s version is quite distanced from modern ones.

CLIMBING UP THE GOLDEN
STAIR. Old‑Time, Song and Breakdown.
D Major. Standard tuning. AABB. This tune, a composition of F. Heiser, is from
the American minstrel repertoire and passed into fiddling tradition.
Unfortunately, the words are rather patently racist. There was a singing dance
call to the tune.

CLINTON.AKA
and see “Going to the Free State.” Old-Time, Breakdown. The Volo Bogtrotters
play a similar tune called “Apple Knocker.”

CLINTON('S) QUADRILLE. Old‑Time, Quarille. Edison 52022 (78 RPM), John Baltzell, 1927. Baltzell was
from Mt. Vernon, Ohio, also the home town of minstrel Dan Emmett (d. 1904).
Emmett had returned there in 1888, poor, but taught young Baltzell to play the
fiddle. Named for the community of Clinton, Ohio, near Mt. Vernon, home to Dan
Emmett, Baltzell and African-American musicians and entertainers Ben and Lew
Snowdon (see note for “Dixie”).

CLOCH NA CEITHRE MHILE (The Four Mile Stone). AKA and see “The Four Mile Stone.” Irish, Reel. The
melody is attributed to Arthur Darley, a Dublin musician who loved for some
time in Bruckless, Co. Donegal. Green Linnet GLCD
3090, Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh & Frankie Kennedy - "Ceol Aduaidh"
(1982/1994. Learned from the playing of the late New York musician Larry
Redigan).

CLOONE HORNPIPE (Crannciuil Cluain). Irish, Hornpipe. G Major. Standard tuning. AABB.
O’Neill (1922) remarks: “(‘The Cloone Hornpipe’) was obtained from
Sergt. James Early who learned it from his tutor on the Union Pipes, ‘Old Man’
Quinn. Like many other fine tunes it was anonymous, so it was named ‘The Cloone
Hornpipe’ in honor of the famous piper's native town and parish in County
Leitrim, Ireland. Its continued popularity is evidenced by its inclusion in a
recent Irish Collection under the identical name invented for it by its
sponsor, Sergt. James Early of Chicago.” See also the related “Nelson’s Hornipe [3].” O'Neill (1915 ed.), 1987; No. 324,
pg. 160. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; pg. 164. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903/1979; No. 1558, pg. 288.
O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001
Gems), 1907/1986; No. 808, pg. 140. Roche
Collection, 1982; vol. 2, pg. 11, No. 213.

CLOUD'S REEL. Old‑Time, Reel. USA,
Pennsylvania. G Major. Standard
tuning. AB. "A hornpipe in the Bayard Coll., No. 182, has a first part
slightly resembling the first of this reel; otherwise the tune is unknown to
the editor, and no other version has been identified" (Bayard, 1944).
Source for notated version: Robert Crow, Claysville,
Pennsylvania, Sept.
13, 1943 ("Learned in that region") [Bayard]. Bayard (Hill Country Tunes), 1944; No. 57.

CLOUT THE CALDRON [1]. Scottish, Irish; Air or March (cut or 2/4 time). B Minor. Standard
tuning. One part. From a MS. originally called the Guthrie MS.Guthrie was a minister beheaded in 1661 for
writing a seditious pamphlet, but as a Covenenter he was no friend of dance
music; apparently someone with a sense of humor sewed the music MS. into a book
of Guthrie's sermons (Alburger). At any rate, the tune is one of the oldest
Scottish dance tunes ever found. Source for notated version: “From O’Neill’s
collection, 1787" [Stanford/Petrie]. McGibbon (Scots Tunes, book II), c. 1746; pg. 45. Stanford/Petrie (Complete Collection), 1905; No. 403, pg.
102.

Mike Yates (2002) says this piece is
usually performed as a banjo-tune, although fiddle versions are numerous and
highly idiosyncratic, with many versions extent. In fact, it appears that the
only thing that unites several of them, beside the title, is the fact that
there is some sort of imitative ‘chicken squawk’ in one of the parts. It was
widely distributed around the South, under this title and similar variants, and
appears in several older collections of folksongs. Yates says the earliest text
he has seen is dated 1886, appearing is the article “South Texas Negro Work-Songs,”
included in Rainbow in the Morning
(Dallas, 1926, reprinted 1965 & 1975).

***

Charles Wolfe (1982) states the tune
was popular with Kentucky
fiddlers. Mt. Airy, North Carolina, fiddler Tommy Jarrell tells us that
"Cluck Old Hen" is in the "old‑timey tuning of A"
also called the "sawmill key" (AEae). Jarrell was inspired to learn
the tune from a distant relative and musical contemporary of his father
(fiddler Ben Jarrell), named Tony Lowe, who effused the tune with an intricate
routine which combined pizzicato "clucks" on the fiddle with
elaborate gestures: "He'd swing the whole fiddle way out, and when he
started back he'd pluck it in again and hit that with the bow, and all the
while he'd never miss his time," said Jarrell (quoted by Barry Poss, 1976).
It so happened that RusselCounty,
southwest Virginia, musician
Fiddlin' Cowan Powers was playing this tune on stage with the Stanley Brothers
(Carter & Ralph) in Saltville, Virginia,
when he had a fatal heart attack in the early 1950's. See Fiddler Magazine
(Summer 2008) for Jody Stecher’s comparative transcriptions of “Cluck Old Hen”
by six influential fiddlers from the Up-Land South: Charlie Bowman, Harvey
Sampson, Joe Birchfield, G.B. Grayson, Ed Weaver and Cowan Powers.

CLUCK OLD HEN [3]. AKA and see "Old Aunt
Katie [3]." American, Reel. USA,
southwestern Pa. G Major. Standard tuning. AB. In this case the title is a
floating one, attached to a Scottish piece usually called in southwestern Pa.
"Old Aunt Katie." It was collected with the rhyme:

CNOIC UISNACH (Hill of Uisnach).
Irish, Air (4/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning. AB. O’Neill (1922) says: “I am
informed by our liberal contributor, Mr. Francis E. Walsh of San
Francisco, that variants of the above air are known to
several of his musical acquaintances but by different names such as Knuck Usnach Gathering; Knuck Costhnach; The Coming of Lugh; and The
Poor Man's Friend. Mr. O'Donohue, whose setting is presented, insists that
it is the true air of Willy Reilly,
the old time favorite of an earlier generation. The melody is the real thing
however.” Source for notated version: P.J. O’Donohue (San
Francisco) [O’Neill]. O’Neill (Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody), 1922.